Our National Health Stories

The Cogency were the marketing consultants for Our National Health Stories, a unique collaboration between 19 NHS Trusts across England and a creative team led by Kwame Kwei-Armah, in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the NHS. The project culminated on 23 November with a day of performances in hospitals and a live show at Aviva Studios in Manchester. Our National Health Stories was funded by Arts Council England, NHS Charities Together and NHS England.

Our work included:

Establishment of social channels from scratch – with over 12,000 engagements and over 287,000 impressions – all organic in less than 5 months
Creating a suite of engaging visual content, including imagery and film to tell the stories of those involved with the project
Story mapping and implementing a live social media campaign on 23 November, that pooled content from 19 locations across the UK to create a stream of activity across social media, giving a of an unprecedented day of performances in hospitals
Planning and management of paid media spend
Managing creation and promoting of 2 x live streams (c.4000 views in 7 days)
Supporting dissemination of content and promotion with 19 trust partners and funders

In 2024, the project won the Royal Society for Public Health Arts & Health Awardy, winning the top prize in the Arts & Health category. The award recognises organisations whose work has furthered the contribution of the creative arts to health and wellbeing.

We continue to work with the National Arts in Hospitals Network (NAHN) who initiated the idea to launch their new UK-wide membership scheme, including developing a new brand and website.

Photos by Chris Payne